Cellulose is a key component of grasses and agricultural and wood waste, and the conversion of such vegetable matter into useful sugars or saccharides represent an important means of producing cellulosic ethanol fuel and a wide range of industrially applicable chemicals.
Cellulose is an abundant water-insoluble source of sugars as it is a long-chain polymer of glucose linked by α-1,4-glycosidic bonds and hydrolysis of these bonds releases smaller polymeric sugar fragments, with complete cleavage yielding glucose monomers. This conversion of plant matter into useful sugars is currently of very high interest as it not only produces cellulosic ethanol fuel, but can also provide a wide range of industrially important chemicals including ethanol, hydrocarbons and the starting materials for polymers.
Current methods for the efficient hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose and glucose oligomers are inefficient, wasteful and require the use of toxic catalysts. They commonly involve the use of Brønsted acid catalysts such as sulfuric acid. Recovery of acid catalysts such as sulfuric acid from the cellulose hydrolysis waste stream is both difficult and costly. These methods are also economically counterproductive. Accordingly, more and better ways of hydrolyzing cellulose in an economically and environmentally sustainable way are desirable.